of the Jews Error who were learned in the Books of the Mosaic Law Most Nations have a particular Dyet some by custome some through superstition Not to speak of the Mahumetans who abstain not only from Swines flesh but from Wine is not the custom of the Bannians not much different from the ancient Pythagoreans to be strangely admir'd who onely feed upon Herbs and Meats made of Milk which we hardly believe sufficient to sustain Nature Others there are that devour all sorts of Creatures which the flesh consuming Beasts themselves refuse and otherwise nauseous to the most part of Men. The Oriental Tartars feed upon Camels Foxes and all sorts of wild Beasts Some of our Europeans indulging their appetites please their palats with a sort of Dyet abominated by all other People as Frogs Cockles and I know not what sort of Insects Gregory had an utter aversion to Lobsters Crabbs Crayfish and Oysters which we accompt our chiefest Delicacies and it turn'd his stomach to see Turkies Hares and several other Dishes to which he was unaccustom'd brought to our Tables Being ask'd why he abstain'd from Swines flesh he retorted still and why we from Horse-flesh And most certainly were we to banquet with the Tartars there are but very few of us that would easily be induc'd to eat Horse-flesh with an Appetite tho it be one of their principal junkets Nay their Embassadors to our Princes desire fat Horses for their Kitchins However they abstain from blood and things strangl'd not out of any observance of the Mosaic Law but an Apostolic Decree always in force in the Eastern Church which was also for many Ages observ'd in the Western Church and reviv'd in some Councils They also rebuke us for that we suffer'd that Decree to be laid aside Nor do they allow the Jews Sabboth out of a respect to Judaism or that they learnt it from some certain Nations that kept the Seventh day holy But because the ancient Custom of the Primitive Church who observ'd that day perhaps out of complacency to the Jews being long retain'd in the East was at length carry'd into Ethiopia For thus we find it written in some ancient Constitutions which they call the Constitutions of the Apostles Let the Servants labour five days but let them keep the Holydays the Sabboth and the Lords Day in the Church for the sake of Pious Instruction The Council of Laodicea decreed that the Gospels with other parts of Scripture should be read upon the Sabboth when before the Paragraphs of the Law of Moses were onely read upon the Sabboth and the Gospels upon the Sunday the Texts of the old Law being thought most agreeable to the Old Sabboth and the Texts of the New Testament to the New Sabboth Socrates also farther testifies that the People us'd to assemble at Church upon the Sabboth and Lords Day And Gregory Nyssen whose Writings the Ethiopians have among them saith With what Eyes dost thou behold the Lords Day who hast defil'd the Sabboth Know'st thou not that these two days are Twins and that if thou injur'st the one thou dost injury to the other But Claudius makes so much difference between both days that he prefers the Lords day before the Sabaoth But as to what pertains to our Celebration of the ancient Sabaoth we do not celebrate it as the Jews did who Crucify'd Christ saying Let his blood be upon Us and our Children For those Jews neither draw water nor kindle fires nor dress meat nor bake bread neither do they go from house to house But we so celebrate it that we administer the Sacrament and relieve the Poor and the Widow as our Fathers the Apostles commanded Us. We Celebrate it as the Sabaoth of the first Holiday which is a new day of which David saith This is the day which the Lord made let us rejoyce and exult therein For upon that day our Lord Jesus Christ rose and upon that day the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in the Oratory of Sion And in that day Christ was incarnated in the Womb of the Perpetual Virgin St. Mary and upon that day he shall come again to reward the Just and punish the Evil. Gregory also testify'd That the Habessines abstain from no sort of Labour upon the Sabaoth but from the most servile sorts of Labour This Custom continu'd long in the Church till it was abrogated by degrees for by the 22d Canon of the said Council of Laodicea the Christians are forbid to work upon the Sabaoth Nevertheless the Sacred Lectures were continu'd for a time as appears by the Canon above mention'd till at length those were also left off perhaps because that the People having a licence to work there were but few that repair'd to Church Moreover according to the Custom of the Jews it is lawful in Abessinia to marry the Widow of the Brother deceas'd as Alvarez testifies Adding That the Habessinian defend their so doing by the Laws of the Old Testament But Gregory positively deny'd that it was lawful but onely conniv'd at by the Magistrate However that such Wives are also prohibited from coming to the Holy Communion wherein Alvarez agrees with him However it does not therefore follow that this Custom was translated from the Jews to the Habessines no more then if any one should assert that the Laws of Polygamie and Divorce were deriv'd from the Jews And yet this is somewhat strange I must confess that they abstain from that Muscle which the Hebrews call Ghid Hannesheh or the Sinew mutilated the Ethiopians Sereje Berum the forbidden Nerve the Amharies Shalada Which very probably they might learn from the Jews in their own Country of which Nation there are several Colonies in Ethiopia But as to what is reported concerning Queen Candaces Eunuch we have already shew'd that she was not Queen of Habessinia but of the Ethiopians that inhabited the Iland of Meroe and if the Eunuch were a Jew it does not follow that his Lady the Queen shall be so too Others there are who tell us That Menilehec's Successors in a short time return'd to the worship of Idols Which if it be true the assertion of the Continuation of the Jewish Religion till the time of the Apostles will prove altogether vain tho in Europe most certainly the Habessines were long suspected of Judaisme and so are many to this day Which King Claudius observing by his Disputations with Gonsalo Rodriguez and the Writings which he compos'd to refute the Errors of the Habessines set forth a Confession of which we have already cited several parcels as they related to our business The chief Scope of which was to remove that Suspition of Judaism from himself and his Subjects which in my opinion he very effectually did CHAP. II. Of the Conversion of the Habessines to the Christian Faith The Conversion of the Habessines attributed to Queen Candace's Eunuch but contrary to authentic Histories Candace no Habessinian Other Traditions nothing better Demonstrated when and by
as Adnael Adotavi Adotael Tilelmejus Cuercuerjam Flastaslaque With many others more horrid to Pronunciation But from hence it is apparent how much the Habassines resemble the Jews as affecting words of uncouth and unheard of insignificancy by which they thought to command both Heaven and Hell which carrying a kind of a dreadful sound the Habessines also use them in their forms of Anathematizing they cry And let him be accurs'd by Addirion and Actariel by Sandalphon and Hadarmel by Ansiciel and Patchiel by Seraphiel and Zeganzael by Michael and Gabriel and by Raphael and Meschartiel and let him be interdicted by Tzautzeviv and Haueheviv He is the great God and by the Seventy Names of that great King and on the behalf of Tzortak the great Ensign-Bearer CHAP. V. Of the Religion of the Habassines at this Day The Reports of Matthew the Armenian and Tzagazaab false or uncertain The Fathers have omitted their soundest Opinions And fix'd their several Errors upon them The Confession of Claudius Genuine The great Authority of the Synodal Writers They admit the Nicene and other Councils till that of Chalcedon They acknowledge the Trinity one Person of Christ and his sufficient Merit The Proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son they deny Gregorie's Dispute and Opinion The Ethiopian interpretation of the word Proceed The Sacraments Baptism Communion under both Kinds The real Presence The words they use in Reference to it Gregorie's Opinion of Transubstantiation Of the Soul after Death They pray for the Dead Deny Purgatory Gregorie's Opinion concerning it The Original of Prayer for the Dead They pray to Saints and Angels Their Catechism for Children and Neophytes WEre the Symbolical Book of the Habessines which they call Hajmanot-Abau to be found in Europe we might easily Collect from thence the true and genuine Sence and Doctrine of the Ethiopic Church concerning the Heads and Articles of the Christian Faith for hitherto we find the most of them uncertainly deliver'd and for the Confession of Faith set down by Matthew the Armenian and Tzagazaab we have already taken notice of the failings in it The Fathers of the Society that have been conversant among the Habessines both in this and the former Century and frequently discours'd with their Learned Men passing by their sound and serious Opinions tax them of many Errors which they have receiv'd from the Greeks and Jews As for Example That the Spirit proceeds only from the Father That the Human Nature of Christ is equal to his Divinity They acknowledge but one Will and one Operation in Christ for which reason they believe that we affirm Four Persons in the Godhead seeing that we confess two Wills and two Natures in Christ. They repeat the Ceremony of Baptism every year upon the Feast of the Epiphany They believe that the Souls of the Just shall not be receiv'd into Heaven before the end of the World nor do they think them to be Created but produc'd out of Matter They neither confess the Number nor the particular Species of their Sins but cry in general I have sin'd I have sin'd They use not the Sacrament of Chrism nor Extream Unction upon the approach of Death nor do they mind the Consolation of the bread of life Insomuch that many of them stick not to say That they who follow the Roman Religion are not only Heretics but worse than the Mahumetans They reject the Council of Chalcedon casting many reproaches upon Leo the Great but highly applauding Dioscurus They deny Purgatory These things I chose to deliver almost in the very words of Godignus who Collected them out of the Relations and Letters of Gonzalez Rodoric Alphonsus de Franca Emanuel Fernandez and others of the Society Neither do they seem to be improbable but how they evade or excuse them we shall shortly declare As to what is said that some of them believe the Followers of the Romish Religion to be worse than Mahumetans I could not hear any such thing from Gregory neither did he think it was to be understood in reference to their Doctrine but their Tyranny over their Subjects it being the Custom of the Mahumetans only to vex and oppress all those who are under their Power professing a Religion contrary to theirs but never to rage against them with Fire and Sword In the mean time we have a Confession set forth by King Claudius but the scope of that Confession was only to clear himself and his Subjects from the Imputation of Judaism which he found to be the only reason that impeded the Amity between him and the Portugals Therefore leaving this Confession by what we can gather from their Publick Liturgies and the Writings and Sayings of Persons both Publick and Private the sum of the Habessinian Doctrine seems to consist of the following Heads First They acknowledge the Holy Scripture to be the sole and only Rule of what they are to believe and what they are to do insomuch that King David said to Alvarez That if the Pope should impose upon Him or His Subjects any thing what the Apostles had not written or permitted he would not obey him nor his own Metropolitan if he should attempt to do the like But with the Scripture they are so much in love that there is nothing more delightful to their Ears than the repetition of it Therefore saith Tellez Nothing more pleas'd the Habessines than to hear the Scripture often quoted in Sermons and the more Citations a man brings out of Scripture the more learned be is accompted Nor do they give much less Credit to the Three Oecumenical Councils as appears by the Confession of Claudius They generally make use of the Nicene Creed which they call Tzalot Hajmanot the Prayer of the Faith That which we use they have not no more than all the rest of the Eastern Churches a strong Argument that it was not compil'd by the Apostles tho' in regard of the Doctrine which it contains it may be truly call'd Apostolic For certainly the Nicene Fathers would not have stifl'd such a Creed or set forth another of their own had the Apostles left such an Epitome of their Doctrine behind them The Ancient Greek Councils then are the Councils which the Habessines have in reverence together with the Eighty four ancient Canons added to those of the Nicene Council till they come to that of Chalcedon which they do not only utterly reject but also Criminally reproach Whatever therefore the Catholic Church admitted and believ'd before that Council concerning God Three in one the Three distinct Persons in one Essence the Eternity of the Son of God the Existence of the Holy Ghost and other Articles of Faith all those things the Habessines willingly consent to and allow condemning those that Dispute against them By the way we are here to observe that the Ethiopic words Sabsatu Gaz Gaz Egza Bahr Three Persons and one God are vulgarly ill Translated being to have bin render'd Three Faces One Lord for the
Polyhist c. 43. al. 30. out of Pomponius Mela. The Long-livers or Macrobii saith he Honour Justice Love Equitie they are very strong and particularly well-favoured But presently after he brings in the old Fable the Fable of the Sun which Herodotus sets forth at large L. 3. where he Treats of the Ambassie of Cambyses to the King of the Macrobii Their Women are also strong and lusty and bring forth with little pain as most Women do in hot Countries When they are in Labour they kneel down upon their knees and so are (l) Thus did the Hebrew Women as it is said of Elis Daughter in Law She fell upon her knees and brought forth delivered without the help of a Midwife unless very rarely And that they are Fruitful you may well imagine from the Multitude of People for though Habessinia be not so numerously Inhabited yet the Latine Patriarch Alphonsus Mendez going his Visitation in one little Province reckon'd Forty thousand in other places a Hundred thousand and in other places others of the Fathers Baptiz'd a Thousand two hundred and five Nor is it to be question'd but that if the Kingdom were at Peace if their Cities and Towns were Fortify'd and that they took care of their Granaries that the number of Inhabitants in so healthy a Country would soon be multiply'd Besides the Abyssines several other Nations Inhabit this Kingdom Jews Mahumetans with several Pagans mix'd amongst the rest The Jews formerly held several fair and large Provinces almost all Denbea as also Wegara and Samen stoutly and long Defending themselves by means of the Rocks till they were driven thence by Susneus at that time they also liv'd according to their own Customs whence perhaps arose the report already hinted at by us That they liv'd either within the Dominions of Prester John or near them under a Prince of their own Now they are dispers'd though many still remain in Dembea getting their livings by Weaving and exercising the Trade of Carpenters Others have retired themselves without the bounds of the Kingdom to the Westward near the River Nile adjoyning to the Cafers whom the Ethiopians call Falusjan or Exiles Most of them still keep up their own Synagogues have their own Hebrew Bibles and speak in a corrupt Talmudic Dialect The Fathers of the Society never took care to enquire when or upon what occasion the Jews came first into Ethiopia whether they are addicted to the Sect of the Karri or the Jews what Sacred Books they use whether with Points or without Points whether they have any other Books especially Histories or whether they have any Traditions concerning their own or Nation of the Habessines which to know would certainly be most grateful to many Learned Men in regard it seems very probable that there may be found some Ancient Books among them since they have liv'd so long and so securely in such inaccessible holds Next to these the Mahumetans are frequently admitted into this Kingdom intermix'd up and down the Country with the Christians employing themselves altogether in Tillage or Merchandizing Trade being all in their hands by reason of their freedom of Traffick which the Turks and Arabians grant them and the liberty of Commerce which they have by their means in all the parts of the Red Sea where they exchange the Habessinian Gold for Indian Wares There are yet many other Barbarous Nations that wander about in the sandy Deserts having no knowledge of God and living without any Government of King or Laws varying in Customes and Language having no certain Habitations but where Night compells them to rest Savage Naked flat Nos'd and blubber Lipp'd Agriophagi devourers of wild Beasts or rather Pamphagi All-eaters for they feed upon (m) For many of the Barbarians have been nam'd from the particular Dyet they fed upon as the Man-Eaters Fish-Eaters Ostrich-Eaters c. Solin in Polyhist c. 30 al. 43. Plin. L. 6. c. 30. Dragons Elephants and whatever they meet in their way The most sordid and vilest of Human Creatures L. 5. c. 8. Gregory described them to me as Pliny described the Troglodytes for they dig themselves Dens in the Earth which are instead of Houses they feed upon Serpents Flesh their Language being only an inarticulate Noise the Portuguezes called these sort of people Cafers borrowing the Word from the Arabians who call all People that deny one God Cafir in the plural Number Cafruna Infidels or Incredulous There are also other Pagans that have their peculiar Names and Regions as the Agawi that Inhabit the Mountainous part of Gojam the Gongae Gafates and the Gallans themselves otherwise the most professed Enemies of the Abessines but being expell'd by Factions of their own the King Assign'd them certain Lands in Gojam and Dembea and makes use of them against their own Country-men from whence they Revolted CHAP. XV. Of the various Languages us'd in Ethiopia particularly of our Ethiopic Erroneously call'd Chaldaic in the last Century The Antiquity of the Ethiopic Language its various Appellations formerly the natural Language of those of Tigra in that all their Books written The Tegian Language what Joh. Potken first divulg'd the Ethiopic in Europe and call'd it Chaldee by mistake more like the Arabic the use of it in the Hebraics An Example in the words Adama and Adam not so called from the Redness of the Earth What now the natural Habassian It differs from the Ethiopic which is much more noble to be learnt by reading and use for that they have neither Grammer nor Lexicon Few understand it difficult to pronounce Multitude of Dialects Eight Principal Languages They understand not the Greek The number of Languages in vain prefix'd not so numbred in Africa AMong so many and such variety of Nations it is no wonder there should be such diversity of Languages The most Noble and most Ancient Language of this Kingdom is our Ethiopic commonly so call'd by the Learned for the Attaining of which we set forth a Lexicon and Grammer some while since in England 1661. the Abissines call it Lesana Itjopia the Language of Ethiopia or Lesana Gheez and sometimes singly Gheez or the Language of the Kingdom or if you please the Language of the Study for that the Word signifies both also the Language of Books either because it is only us'd in Writing or else because it is not to be attained without Study and Reading of Books It was formerly the Natural Language of those of Tigra when the Kings kept their Court at Aexuma the Metropolis of Tigra in this Language all their Books as well Sacred as Prophane were written and still are written and into this Language the Bible was formerly Translated For whereas others Write that the Abessines read the Scripture in the Tegian Language (n) Walton in his Prolegomena before the Bible c. 15. out of Alvarez for the r. and the i. written without a Point after the Italian manner deceiv'd the Readers that 's a mistake for
the Tegran or the Language of Tigra is to be understood of our Ethiopic Though it be true that since their Kings left Axuma the Dialect of this Country is very much alter'd yet still it approaches nearest to the Ancient Language which is as we but lately said now call'd the Ethiopic so that the Abissines themselves if they meet any doubtful word in this Language presently consult those of Tygra concerning the signification John Potken a German of Cologne now Ancient and Gray was the first that divulg'd this Language in Europe and then setting up a neat Ethiopic Printing-House in Rome there Imprinted the first Ethiopic Books that is to say the Psalter with the Hymns of the Old Testament and the Canticles In this deceiv'd that he gave too much Credit to certain Idle Habessines who Affirm'd That as well their Language as their Ethiopic Characters were (o) Ambrose Theseus his Contemporary mildly reproves him for it in his Introduction to the Oriental Languages for saith he with tenderness to his age and friendship Thy Learning very much fails thee in this matter Now Theseus stifly affirms The Habessines to be Indians and their Language Indian perhaps the more tolerable Errour of the two Chaldaic I could not find out the Cause of so Gross an Errour neither had Gregory ever heard it in his own Country perhaps it fell out by reason of the likeness of the Language though indeed it agree with the Chaldaic no more than with the Hebrew or Syriac for it approaches nearest to the Arabic of which it seems to be a kind of Production as being comprehended almost within the same Grammatical Rules the same forms of Conjugations the same forms of Plurals both entire and anomalous so that whoever understands either that or the rest of the Oriental Languages may with little labour understand this our Ethiopic Neither is it useful alone for the understanding of the Habessine Books and Affairs but for Illustrating and Expounding the rest of the Eastern Languages and first the Hebrew of which there is yet a small remainder in the Bible insomuch that the genuine significations of many words are to be fetched from the neighbouring Dialects and many texts of Sacred Writ borrow that Light from hence as shall be more amply demonstrated by Examples in our Commentary One more then ordinarily remarkable we shall here produce The Latines called the most Elegant and Delightful piece of Workmanship of the Most Omnipotent God Mundum or the World in imitation of the Greeks who nam'd the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ornament (p) For the Greeks borrowed their Letters and many other things from the Phoenicians as Bochart and many others declare at large assuming the same Word not from Native Invention but from the Phoenicians by whom the World but more especially the Earth is called Adamah or Beautiful I know it is vulgarly deriv'd from the signification of (q) So most Lexicon-Writers Buxtorf tells us that Adamah Earth is so call'd as being of a Red or Clay Colour Schindler affirms The true Earth before it is dig'd is Red and that Adam was Form'd out of Red Earth Which are said vainly and gratis neither does Kimchi in his Book of Roots mention any such Derivation Redness because the Hebrew Root Adam signifies to be Red. But how much of the Earth can we aver to be Red certainly a very small quantity so that it is most insipid to derive the Etymologie of so vast a Mass from Redness Therefore first Created Human Being himself the common Parent of us all deriv'd his Name Adam not from the redness of the Earth but from the Absolute Perfection of his Frame and Shape as being the Master-piece to speak more Humano of his (r) But after his Fall having lost his Primitive Beauty he was admonish'd of his Mortality by an Allusion to the Word Earth out of which he was Created Creator For this signification which has hitherto been unknown to the Lexicon-writers of most of the Oriental Languages is most apparent from the Ethiopic in which Language Adamah signifies Beautiful Elegant and Pleasant Nor do the Ethiopians understand the Word Adam otherwise than of a thing that is Beautiful And there is no doubt but that the City Adamah before it was destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah seated upon the Banks of Jordan which are often compar'd to the (s) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gaz-Jehovah the Paradise of God according to the Vulgar Latine Version Garden of the Lord was so call'd from the Pleasantness of its Situation But Axuma being relinquish'd and the Empire being translated into the Heart of the Kingdom the Vulgar use of this our Language ceas'd For the Zagean Line failing when they set up a Sewan Prince where the Amharic Dialect is vulgarly spoken and that some others who were Exiles in the Rock of Amhara were call'd to the Government the Amharic Dialect came into request For the new King not well understanding the Language of Tygra and having advanc'd about his Person his own Friends that spake the same Language with him brought his own Dialect into the Court and Camp which being long fix'd there and in the Parts adjoyning was seldom remov'd into Tygra In imitation of whom the rest of the Nobility and great Personages used the same Speech Thus the Amharic Dialect otherwise call'd the King's Language being carry'd along with the Camp and Court over all the Kingdom t got the upper hand of all the other Dialects and the Ancient and more Noble Ethiopic Language it self and at length became so Familiar to all the Chief of the Abissines that you may easily by the use of that one Dialect Travel the whole Empire though in several Parts so extreamly differing in Dialect from one another It differs from the Ethiopic both in Construction and Grammer so that he who understands the one cannot comprehend the other yet he who understands the one may easily learn the other because that for above half the Language as far as I can judge the words are common to both Gregory could hardly be perswaded to Translate me the Lords Prayer and some few Texts of Scripture into the Amharic Dialect by reason of the difficulty to write it For it has seven peculiar Characters not usual in the Ethiopic however the Ethiopic retains its pristine Dignity not only in their Books but in their Divine Worship as also in the Kings Letters Patents and Commissions which are dispatch'd in his Council Therefore they are accounted Learned in Ethiopia that can but Read and Write it for it is to be learnt out of Books and by long use as also by the Assistance of School-masters too though they are very rare there for they have neither Grammer nor Dictionary which Gregory beheld here not without Admiration At first he extreamly wondred what I meant when I requested of him the Root of any Ethiopic Word at what time I was compiling my Lexicon and
has written a certain Ethiopic Martyrologie who asserts That Frumentius otherwise Abba-Salama was the Author of the first Translation but before I see it I will not undertake to affirm it converted or a very short time after and not in the time of the Apostles as some have reported and brought to perfection by several because the more rare and difficult words such as are the names of Gemms are not all alike in all the Books For example the Topaz in the 118 Psalm 127 Verse is call'd Pazjon in Job 28.19 Tankar in Revelations the 21.20 Warauri and so in many other words the same difference is observ'd But for the New Testament they have it Translated from the Authentic Greek Text tho as yet it has not bin brought into Europe pure and intire For the Roman Edition is printed from a lame imperfect Copy so that I was forc'd to fill up the Gapps which Tesfa-Tzejon had left from the Greek and Latin Exemplars This was observ'd by some Learned Men but not understanding the Cause it made them think that the Ethiopic Version had bin drawn from the Vulgar Latin Perhaps they did not understand these following Ethiopic Lines These Acts of the Apostles for the most part were translated at Rome out of the Latin and Greek for want of the Ethiopic Origiginal For what we have added or omitted we begg your pardon and request of You to mend what is amiss More then this the Publisher of the Book beggs pardon and excuses the defect of the Edition in regard of the ignorant Assistants which he had to help him Fathers and Brethren be pleas'd not to interpret amiss the faults of this Edition for they who Compos'd it could not read and for our selves we know not how to compose So then we help'd them and they assisted us as the blind leads the blind and therefore we desire you to pardon us and them This Excuse he also repeats in other places as being conscious of its being defective in several other places Nevertheless the same Edition was afterwards printed in England as an addition to that famous Poly Glotton of which there is no other reason to be given but that there was no other to be procur'd However they enjoy the holy Scripture entire and reck'n as many Books as we do tho they divide them after another manner For they distinguish the Old Testament which contains 46 Books into four Principal parts to which they joyn certain other Books of a different Argument consulting more perhaps the Convenience of the Volumes then the Dignity of the Matter They also mix the Apocryphal with the Canonical whether out of Carelesness or Ignorance is uncertain And as for Gregory he plainly confess'd he had never heard of any such word as Apocrypha The first Tome is call'd Oreth or the Law and the Octateuch for it contains Eight Books which are call'd 1. Zasteret or the Creation call'd also by another name Kadami Aret or the First Book of the Law or Zaledate or the Generation or Genesis 2. Zatzat Exodus 3 Zalewawejan of the Levites 4. Zahuelekue or Numbers 5. Zadabetra of the Tabernacle 6. Ejashu Joshua 7. Masafenet of the Dukes 8. Rute Ruth The Other Tome is call'd Nagaste or Kings and is divided into Thirteen Books 9 10. 1 Samuel or Samuel 2. Which nevertheless they call after the manner of the Greeks the 1.2.3.4 of Kings 11 12. Ebrewejen of the Hebrews II. Which nevertheless they call after the manner of the Greeks the 1.2.3.4 of Kings 13 14. Hatzutzan Of the Lesser or Inferior II. Thus they seem to understand the Greek word Paralipopomena 15 16. Ezra or Ezra II. 17. Tobed Tobia 18. Judic Judith 19. Ester Ester 20. Jjob Job 21. Masmare Of the Psalmes The Third Tome is call'd Salomon and contains Five Books 22. Maste the Proverbs 23. Maqebeb The Sermon Properly a Circle or an Assembly of Men Assembled together in a Ring 24. Mahaleja Mahuleje the Song of Songs 25. Tobeb the Book of Wisdom 26. Sirach Sirach The Fourth Tome is call'd Nabijat or the Prophets and contains Eighteen Books 27. Esjajas Isaiah 28 29. Eremjas Tanbitu Wakkakibu The Prophesie of Jeremie and his Lamentations 30. Baruch 31. Ezechiel 32. Daniel The next that follow as among us are Nesan Nabjat or the Minor Prophets 33. Hoseas 34. Joel 35. Amos. 36. Obadijah 37. Jonas 38. Michejas or Micah 39. Nahum 40. Habacuc 41. Sophonijas 42. Hag. or Hagjah 43. Zacharias 44. Malaqijas To these they add 45. Maqabejan the two Books of Maccabees Of all which there are at Rome in Manuscript the 1. Pentateuch 2. Joshuah 3. Judges 4. Ruth 5. Four Books of Kings 6. Isaiah In Print are Extant 1. The four first Chapters of Genesis 2. The Book of Ruth 3. The Psalter 4. The Song of Songs 5. Joel 6. Jonas 7. Sophoniah 8. Malachi With the Hymns of the Old Testament The New Testament contains Four and twenty Books and is also divided into Four parts of which the first is call'd Wenghel or the Evangel comprehending the Four Evangelists 1. Matthew 2. Mark 3. Luke and 4. John The second the Gober or the Acts viz. of the Apostles The third call'd Paulus comprehends the 14 Epistles of St. Paul 6. To the Romans 7. To the Corinthians II. 8. To the Galathians 10. To the Ephesians 11. To the Philippians 12. To the Colossians 13 14. To the Thessalonians 15 16. To Timothy II. 17. To Titus 18. To Philemon 19. To the Hebrews The fourth Hakreja or the Apostle containing the Seven Books of 20. St. James 21 22. St. Peter II. 23 24 25. St. John III. 26. St. Jude To which they add as a Supplement the Vision of John sirnam'd Abukalamsis A word corrupted out of the Greek Apocalypsis which they ignorantly took for the Sirname of St. John as compounded of the Arabic word Abu Kalamsis Here we are to observe that in the written Eastern Copies the Epistles of St. Paul are found single by themselves and this is the reason that in the Roman Copy of the Ethiopic New Testament they were Printed apart and not in the Order by us observ'd To the New Testament they generally annex a Volume which they call according to the Greek word Synodum or the Book of Synods It contains those most ancient Constitutions which are call'd the Constitutions of the Apostles in their Language Tazazate Precepts or Canons being an Explanation of the Primitive Rites and Ceremonies written by the Industry of St. Clement but they are very much different from those that are dispers'd among Us under the name of the Apostles These the Habessines divide into eight parts adding withall to the Canonical Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles as it were certain Novels as if they were of the same Authority and the most absolute Pandects of Christianity Hence it was that King David said to Alvaresius That he had Fourscore and one Books of Sacred Scripture that is to say Six and forty of